Mara waited one beat, then tapped again. The feature returned. The error vanished. The system looked whole again, as if nothing happened. Mara kept her voice practical. “I don’t want to sabotage the system, obviously,” she said. “But I can,” she ended after a pause.
Around the room, counsel and executives began moving in tight patterns. Conversations stopped and restarted in whispers. The business merger—so confident seconds ago—suddenly looked fragile. Mara stayed still and let the silence do its work.